cation. Too often both management and consultants hurry to get the job done and may undermine the importance of understanding staff feeling and attitude. The feeling and commitment of employees may wax and wane in the course of the ISO certification process which very often lasts for over a year.
The authors were involved in the ISO certification process of a listed public proper-ty investment and development company in Hong Kong (referred to as KDC). The man-agement of KDC was convinced of the impor-tance of quality management to maintain and sustain their business success. They decided to adopt ISO as the quality system for the company. They were not compelled by their customers to seek the ISO quality system. They were confident that the ISO certificate would enhance their quality standard and improve their competitiveness.
In order to monitor employee response to the launch of the ISO programme, the management felt the need to gauge staff attitudes by means of a self-completed anonymous questionnaire on a longitudinal basis. Three rounds of survey questionnaires would be administered. The first round was conducted in June 1996, the begin-ning of its ISO journey. The second one was done in November 1996, i.e. in the midst of the ISO journey. The last one was conducted short-ly after the company had acquired the ISO 9001 certificate (i.e. in July 1997).
The survey questionnaire uses a five-point Likert scale and covers the following
constructs:
• awareness of quality programmes (AQP) in KDC (items 1 and 2);
• perceived benefits of the quality
programme (BENEFIT) (items 3a to 3f); • quality success drivers (QSD) (items 4, 6
to 9);
• training needs (TN) (items 10a to 10h); • perceived success factors (PSF) (items 11a
to 11m);
• perceived strengths of KDC (PS) (items 12a to 12m);
• perceived performance gap of KDC (GAP) (PSF – PS);
• organizational commitment level (OC) (item 13 to 21).
In the last round of the survey, the question-naire included four specific questions on employees’ views on:
• Item A – whether it was good for the com-pany to adopt the ISO 9000 standard; 312
Managing Service Quality
Volume 8 · Number 5 · 1998 · pp. 312-319 © MCB University Press · ISSN 0960-4529
Analysing employee
attitudes towards ISO
certification
Hannah Koo
L.C. Koo and
Fredrick K.C. Tao
The authors
Hannah Koois a Candidate for the Doctor of Management, International Management Centres, Buckingham, UK. L.C. Koo is Vice-chairman, Hong Kong Quality Manage-ment Association, Hong Kong.
Fredrick K.C. Tao is a Professor at the Asia International Open University, Macau.
Abstract
Employee attitude has often been neglected in most quality endeavors. Both consultants and management hurry to get the project done and omit to measure and manage the soft aspects of the event. The task-orientation approach should be augmented by the people elements. This article illustrates how a company in Hong Kong applied a longitudinal employee attitude survey as a monitoring tool in its journey towards acquiring the ISO certificate. Quality success drivers were found to be the key determinants for the perceived strengths of the company.
Koo, Hannah, Koo, L. C. and Tao, Fredrick K.C. (1998) "Analysing employee attitudes towards ISO certification" Managing Service Quality Volume 8, pp. 312-319
• Item B – whether they would try their best to maintain the ISO standard;
• Item C – whether they agreed that the ISO standard had enhanced the management standard of the company; and
• Item D – whether the ISO standard had enhanced the image and goodwill of the company.
The questionnaire also contained personal data such as: length of service; job grade; department; gender; age; educational level; and marital status. These would help discern the staff attitude pattern among various differ-ent demographic groups within the company.
Key benefits of ISO certification
It is useful to review the reasons why organiza-tions apply for ISO certification. The key objectives of acquiring ISO 9000 are (Mallak
et al., 1997):
• to achieve and sustain the quality of the product or service;
• to give management confidence that quali-ty is being met; and
• to give the customer confidence that con-sistency is being delivered in the product or service.
Benefits of ISO certification are many and varied. According to Quazi and Padibjo (1997), ISO benefits include: increased cus-tomer preference, improved company quality image and competitiveness in the market, compliance with customer requirements, streamlined procedures and documentation, increased awareness of preventive and correc-tive actions, and provision of a foundation for TQM.
Ho (1994) mentioned the claimed benefits by the British Standard Institution (BSI): marketing tool; buyer acceptance as proof of quality and technical expertise; customers less likely to arrange special assessment; quality performance/morale improvement; reduction of cost of quality; improved customer satisfac-tion/sales/competitiveness and profitability; confidence; name appearing in reference books for buyers; and help in export markets. Yung (1997) reported the benefits of ISO to include: marketing advantages; better documentation system; quality awareness among staff; and efficiency improvements/ cost reductions. McLachlan (1996) revealed 35 benefits of ISO and he related the relevant paragraph of ISO to each of these benefits. Adanur and Allen (1995) reported the follow-ing benefits of ISO: more motivated
employ-ees; better product quality; lower quality costs; and more efficient operations.
Dale (1994) outlined the following benefits of ISO 9000: error reduction; reduction of audit time taken by customers; improvement in control, discipline, procedure, documenta-tion, communicadocumenta-tion, customer satisfacdocumenta-tion, problem handling and quality awareness; identification of ineffective and surplus proce-dures; and better working environment.
As most of the ISO benefits are diverse and yet similar, it is interesting to see how they can be classified. Buttle (1997) identified 23 benefits and the top ten benefits of ISO 9000 certification are:
(1) improving efficiency;
(2) improving awareness of procedural problems;
(3) better management control; (4) using the standard as a promotional
tool;
(5) increasing customer satisfaction; (6) improving customer service; (7) facilitating elimination of procedural
problems;
(8) improving staff motivation; (9) keeping existing customers; and (10) gaining new customers.
The 23 benefits were more parsimoniously factored into four factors: i.e. profitability; process improvement; marketing benefits; and sundries benefits.
Mo and Chan (1997) classified the ISO benefits into quantitative benefits (expand market share; reduce scrap and rework; increase productivity; and reduce product defects) and non-quantitative benefits (increase employee morale; minimize role ambiguity; better control of suppliers; improve existing system; and improve customer satis-faction). Ho (1994) quoted Bulled’s (1987) categorization of ISO benefits into:
• advantages of having the system; • additional advantages accruing from the
result of having an independently assessed quality system.
Possible drawbacks of the ISO scheme
Despite the growth and popularity of ISO certification, the scheme is not without criticism from business practitioners and academics. There are actual and perceived disadvantages in adopting the ISO quality system. ISO was described as being costly and time-consuming (Mallak et al., 1997). Money and time would be the first barrier to
over-come in order to convince the top manage-ment to introduce ISO into the organization. Seddon (1997) raised ten arguments against ISO 9000. He pointed out that in addition to cost, ISO would make customers unhappy, demoralize staff and take away improvement. With ISO in place, people had to do “two jobs” – do it and then “write” about it. In a study of quality practice in Asia, Syrett and Pike (1995) noted that it was possible for a company to be certified to ISO 9000 without having initiated any quality programme. Failing to understand the rationale of the ISO quality system, many companies sought ISO 9000 simply because of pressure from cus-tomers.
Other criticisms about ISO include (McLachlan, 1996): being too expensive; not addressing the needs of small businesses; being biased towards manufacturing; being irrelevant; and rubbish still being made and sold.
Common barriers in launching ISO 9000
The reasons for many companies failing to recognize and realize the advantages of ISO should be examined. These barriers have to be identified and properly handled so that the quality system can be successfully introduced and sustained.
One barrier, as cited by Mallak et al. (1997), was the lack of an appropriate organi-zational quality culture to induce necessary changes in attitude and behaviour to reinforce the desired change. A study by Quasi and Padijbo (1997) on seven companies identified the following barriers: lack of top commit-ment; lack of financial and human resources; limited time for implementation; perceived employee resistance; no perceived advantages in certification; and poor training. Mo and Chan (1997) suggested that cost of certifica-tion, customers’ double-standard attitude (on certification and price) and the increased ISO maintenance overheads were factors
inhibiting ISO certification. They pointed out that small firms experienced technical obsta-cles like high implementation costs, inade-quate resources, and insufficient external assistance.
Success drivers for ISO 9000/TQM implementation
Hvam et al. (1997) suggest that a prerequisite for successful adoption of ISO certification is
to perform re-engineering in advance. They made a distinction between Hammer and Champy’s (1993) business process
re-engineer-ing (i.e. fundamental alteration approach) and
Harrington’s (1991) process re-engineering (i.e. operationally oriented approach).
Yung (1997) suggests the following factors as drivers for successful implementation of quality management programmes:
• commitment and involvement by top management;
• teamwork approach to solving problems; • thorough training to promote quality
awareness;
• improvement of quality control techniques and methods;
• continuous improvement programme; • participation of staff at all levels. Grint (1997) said that one of the critical touchstones of TQM was the involvement and commitment of the workforce at all levels. From a study of the quality circle practice in Hong Kong, Koo (1995) reported that top and middle management support and com-mitment are the key drivers to good quality management practice.
Key findings
Personal data of the respondents The response rates for the three rounds of questionnaire ranged from 61 to 77 per cent. Because an attitude survey had never been launched before, there were more respon-dents omitting to supply their personal data in the first round. Confidentiality was further re-emphasized for the latter two rounds and the situation improved. The respective personal data were compared across three rounds and they revealed a consistent pattern which generally agreed with the personnel profile of the staff population. Therefore the data were likely to represent the whole population reli-ably.
There were:
• 42 per cent male respondents and 58 per cent female;
• 7 per cent below 20 years old, 44 per cent between 20 and 30, 28 per cent between 30 and 40, 15 per cent between 40-50 and 6 per cent over 50;
• 2 per cent with primary education, 53 per cent secondary, 23 per cent post-secondary and 22 per cent university standard; • 45 per cent single, 53 per cent married and
• 37 per cent had less than 30 months of service with KDC and 63 per cent had worked for over 30 months with the com-pany;
• 34 per cent clerical, 43 per cent superviso-ry and 23 per cent managerial grade.
Reliability coefficients of the various constructs
Cronbach alphas were computed for the following attitudinal constructs for the three rounds individually and as a whole (Table I). On the whole, the reliability of most of the conceptual constructs was acceptable and rather consistent throughout the three rounds.
Staff attitudes at different stages of the ISO certification process
Table II summarizes the staff attitude patterns at the start, midst and end of the ISO acquisi-tion journey. As menacquisi-tioned earlier, the differ-ent responddiffer-ent groups at the differdiffer-ent stages are representative of the entire population. The comparison on a longitudinal basis depicts how employee attitudes vary at different times.
This longitudinal study revealed that employees felt the decline of quality success drivers in the midst of the ISO journey as compared to the start. However, once the company had successfully acquired the ISO certificate, employees felt that the
performance gap of the company dropped significantly as compared to the start. In other words, the respondents perceived that the ISO certification had improved the performance of the company. The gap is defined as the differ-ence between the perceived importance (i.e. PSF) and the perceived strengths (i.e. PS). If the perceived importance is high and the
perceived strengths are also high (i.e. no or little gap), then the company is perceived to be doing all right. Alternatively, if the specific item is perceived to be of little importance and the company is not doing too well in that area, it is still all right. A problem would be per-ceived to exist if the perper-ceived importance is high and yet the company is perceived not to be doing well in that area. Thus the larger the “gap” the bigger is the need for improvement. Reduction in performance gap is therefore perceived to be improvement made by the company.
These findings are echoed by the scores (on a five-point scale ) of the four additional questionnaire items in the last round: (1) It was good for my company to adopt the
ISO 9000 standard (4.13).
(2) I will try my best to assist my company to maintain the ISO standard (4.21). (3) The ISO 9000 standard has enhanced the
management standard of my company (4.13).
(4) The ISO 9000 standard has enhanced the image and goodwill of my company (4.33).
Analysis of the interrelationships among various key constructs
Koo (1994) advocates the use of structural equation modelling to test the plausibility of putative causal relationships between one variable and another in non-experimental conditions. It involves the estimation of coeffi-cients of a set of linear structural equations representing cause and effect relationships. However Schumacker and Lomax (1996) suggest that structural equation models can at best only provide evidence of weak causal inference and strong cause-effect inferences can be made only from experimental stud-ies.They mention three necessary conditions
Table I Cronbach alphas computed for attitudinal constructs for three rounds
Reliability analysis over time Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Overall (AQP) Awareness of quality programmes
in KDC (items 1 & 2) 0.67 0.75 0.77 0.73
(BENEFIT) Perceived benefits (items 3a to 3f) 0.85 0.85 0.82 0.84 (QSD) Quality success drivers (items 4, 6 to 9) 0.69 0.80 0.78 0.76
(TN) Training needs (items 10a to 10h) 0.90 0.91 0.90 0.90
(PSF) Perceived success factors (items 11a to 11m) 0.94 0.94 0.94 0.94 (PS) Perceived strengths of KDC (items 12a to 12m) 0.92 0.93 0.91 0.92 (GAP) Perceived performance gap of KDC (PSF – PS) 0.94 0.95 0.89 0.93 (OC) Organizational commitment level (item 13 to 21) 0.93 0.92 0.93 0.93
for cause and effect to be inferred between variables X and Y:
(1) temporal order (X happens before Y); (2) X and Y covariate with each other;
and
(3) variation is not due to other causes. The following recursive model outlines the influences among the four selected con-structs in the KDC surveys. A recursive (from the Latin recurso, meaning “I return”) model is one in which no variable has an effect on itself (Arbuckle, 1997). In the following path diagram (Figure 1), it is hypothesized that awareness of quality pro-grammes (AQP), quality success drivers (QSD) and perceived benefits (BENEFIT) all have an influence on perceived strengths of the company (PS). PS is an endogenous variable with single-headed arrows pointing to it and AQP, QSD and BENEFIT are exogenous variables with no arrows pointing at them.
The squared multiple correlations (SMC) represent the percentage (i.e. 35 per cent) of the variance of the endogenous variable being explained by the exogenous variables. From the standardized regression weights, it is noted that the influence of quality success drivers on the perceived strengths is larger than that from awareness of quality
programmes, and benefits. In fact the influ-ence by AQP is almost negligible.
Conclusion
This longitudinal study on attitudinal change over time is useful to the management of a company. Appropriate and timely actions may be taken to help improve the chance of getting ISO certification. Knowing more precisely what employees think facilitates reaping more benefits from ISO certification. Staff attitude is something that management cannot ignore and simply hope the problem will disappear. If not handled properly, problematic issues may erupt to become more detrimental to the Table II Staff attitude patterns
(Round 1) (Round 2) (Round 3)
Start of Midst of End of ISO Overall scores ISO acquisition ISO acquisition acquisition for three Description of attitudinal constructs process process process rounds
AQP – awareness of quality programme 4.13 3.90 4.06 4.03
BENEFIT – perceived benefit of
quality programme 3.89 3.80 3.76 3.82
QSD – quality success drivers 3.93* 3.68* 3.83 3.82
TN – training needs 4.17 4.08 4.09 4.12
PSF – perceived success factors 4.34 4.24 4.18 4.26
PS – perceived strengths of the company 3.50 3.46 3.65 3.53 GAP – perceived performance gap of KDC 0.93* 0.84 0.58* 0.79
OC – organizational commitment 3.74 3.76 3.86 3.78
Note: To test whether the attitudinal scores at various rounds are different,a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was applied with least significant difference (LSD)post hoc multiple comparison. Only the following two pairs (marked with an asterisk) are different at the 0.05 significance level:
QSD: round 1’s 3.93 is higher than round 2’s 3.68 GAP: round 3’s 0.58 is lower than round 1’s 0.93
AQP QSD PS Error BENEFIT .72 –.06 .23 .66 .72 .46 .35
Note: Standardized Regression Weights:
PS <--- QSD PS <--- AQP PS <--- BENEFIT Estimate 0.457 –0.057 0.233 Correlations: QSD <---> AQP QSD <---> BENEFIT AQP <---> BENEFIT Estimate 0.716 0.658 0.720 Squared Multiple Correlations:
PS
Estimate 0.350 Figure 1 Path diagram
organization. If staff perception is correct, then it becomes obvious that some actions need to be taken. Even if staff perception is incorrect, the issue has still to be addressed because, from the employees’ perspectives, they would be correct in making that particu-lar assumption (i.e. “reality is reality, percep-tion is also reality”). The correct situapercep-tion or message needs to be conveyed to the staff.
The eight constructs (i.e. AQP, BENEFIT, QSD, TN, PSF, PS, GAP, and OC) were found to be reliable (see Appendix). Many of these constructs were single factors in varimax factor analysis. Most of these were stable across the three survey rounds. Employee attitudes were relatively stable over time except for quality success drivers and the perceived performance gaps. Path analysis suggests that quality success drivers are a key determinant in the perceived strengths of the company.
The gap analysis has been demonstrated to be useful and to have much practical implica-tion. A gap is defined as the difference between the perceived importance (i.e. PSF) and the perceived strengths (i.e. PS). If the perceived importance is high and the per-ceived strength is high (i.e. little or no gap), then it is fine. Similarly, if the specific item is perceived to be of little importance and the company is not doing too well in that area, it is still fine. Management should be concerned about areas where the gap is large (i.e. the issue is perceived to be important and yet the company is perceived not to be doing too well there). In short, those areas with the larger gaps should have a higher priority.
A staff attitude survey can be an effective tool to help an organization launch its change programmes more successfully. Human resources are by far the most important assets of most organizations. They are also the most volatile to predict. The review of the literature on ISO benefits, drawbacks, barriers, and success factors provides useful reference information to tailor-design a survey ques-tionnaire suitable for a particular organiza-tion. The survey should be longitudinal and administered at the key milestones of any major change programme.
References
Adanur, S. and Allen, B. (1995), “First results on the effects of ISO 9000 in the US textile industry”, Benchmark-ing for Quality Management & Technology, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 41-52.
Arbuckle, J. L. (1997),Amos Users’ Guide Version 3.6, SmallWaters Corporation, Chicago, IL.
Bulled, J.W. (1987), “Quality management systems and assessment”, General Engineer, November, pp. 271-80.
Buttle, F. (1997), “ISO 9000: marketing motivations and benefits”, International Journal of Quality & Relia-bility Management, Vol. 14 No. 9, pp. 936-47. Dale, B.G. (1994), Managing Quality, Prentice-Hall, New
York, NY.
Grint, K. (1997), “TQM, BPR, JIT, BSCs and TLAs: manager-ial waves or drownings?”, Management Decision, Vol. 35 No. 10, pp. 731-8.
Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1993), Re-engineering the Corporation – a Manifesto for Business Revolution, Harper Business, New York, NY.
Harrington, H.J. (1991), Business Process Improvement – the Breakthrough Strategy for Total Quality Produc-tivity and Competitiveness, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Ho, S.K.M. (1994), “Is the ISO 9000 series for total quality management?”, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 11 No. 9, pp. 74-89. Hvam, L., Nielsen, A.P. and Bjarno, O.C. (1997),
“Re-engineering caused by ISO certification”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 192-204. Koo, L.C. (1994), “Determinants of employee-organization
linkage behaviours – a longitudinal case study of tellers in Hong Kong bank”, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Koo, L.C. (1995), “The practices of quality circles in Hong Kong”, Asia Pacific Journal of Quality Management, Vol. 4, pp. 17-32.
McLachlan, V.N. (1996), “In praise of ISO 9000”, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 21-3.
Mallak, L.A., Bringelson, L.S. and Lyth, D.M. (1997), “A cultural study of ISO certification”, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 328-48.
Mo, J.P.T. and Chan, A.M.S. (1997), “Strategy for the successful implementation of ISO 9000 in small and medium manufacturers”, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 135-45.
Quazi, H.A. and Padibjo, S.R. (1997), “A journey towards total quality management through ISO 9000 certifi-cation – a Singapore experience”, The TQM Maga-zine, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 364-71.
Schumacker, R.E., and Lomax, R.G. (1996), A Beginner’s Guide to Structural Equation Modeling, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah,NJ.
Seddon, J. (1997), “Ten arguments against ISO 9000”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 7 No. 4 pp. 162-8. Syrett, M. and Pike, J. (1995), The Quest for Quality
Mastering Management in Asia, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Hong Kong.
Yung, W.K.C. (1997), “The values of TQM in the revised ISO 9000 quality system”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 221-30.
Appendix. Factor analyses of the attitudinal constructs
Only one factor was extracted for AQP, BENEFIT, QSD and OC.
Factor analysis on training needs (TN) by the varimax rotation method
Factor 1 Factor 2 Personal Quality development development Q10F 0.86070 0.22681 Leadership skills Q10G 0.81687 0.26860 Team building Q10H 0.80482 0.12344 Language
Q10E 0.75006 0.29884 Problem solving
Q10C 0.69134 0.46247 Management/supervisory skill
Q10B 0.25444 0.90324 ISO 9000 documentation
Q10A 0.18996 0.89178 ISO awareness
Q10D 0.57613 0.59675 TQM
Factor analysis on perceived success factors (PSF) by the varimax rotation method
Factor 1 Factor 2
Soft Hard
issues issues
Q11A 0.83250 0.12200 Management ability
Q11K 0.82819 0.16506 Business reputation
Q11J 0.82101 0.26607 Training of employees
Q11L 0.78909 0.26735 Personnel management
Q11I 0.73813 0.45642 Cost control
Q11H 0.72004 0.42915 Servicing
Q11G 0.65418 0.52707 Sales and marketing
Q11C 0.59435 0.58598 Quality control
Q11B 0.57882 0.57246 Quality system
Q11E 0.12582 0.88724 Product design
Q11F 0.19391 0.87757 Technology
Q11D 0.31495 0.79705 Purchasing
q11M 0.39155 0.67425 Machine/equipment investment
Factor analysis on perceived strengths (PS) by the varimax rotation method
Factor 1 Factor 2
General Production
issues issues
Q12A 0.84003 0.09876 Management ability
Q12B 0.83169 0.32069 Quality system
Q12L 0.79513 0.24273 Personnel management
Q12C 0.79116 0.34889 Quality control
Q12J 0.70832 0.26564 Training of employees
Q12K 0.65171 0.36862 Business reputation
Q12E 0.16497 0.84628 Product design
Q12D 0.35070 0.77728 Purchasing
Q12G 0.21773 0.77247 Sales and marketing
Q12F 0.19782 0.71610 Technology
Q12M 0.21504 0.68261 Machine/equipment investment
Q12I 0.35468 0.64649 Cost control
Q12H 0.47007 0.59156 Servicing
Factor analysis on perceived gap (GAP) by the varimax rotation method
Factor 1 Factor 2
General Production
issues issues
GAP11 0.82252 0.11670 Business reputation
GAP10 0.78032 0.31444 Training of employees
GAP8 0.75853 0.33022 Servicing
GAP12 0.69729 0.39577 Personnel management
GAP1 0.69717 0.30769 Management ability
GAP13 0.60669 0.31112 Machine/equipment investment
GAP9 0.59869 0.45341 Cost control
GAP5 0.06643 0.88713 Product design
GAP3 0.39561 0.79015 Quality control
GAP4 0.37727 0.75686 Purchasing
GAP2 0.46347 0.71987 Quality system
GAP6 0.40514 0.66145 Technology
GAP7 0.37855 0.66047 Sales and marketing
Both the reliability tests and factor analyses provide evidence that these attitudinal constructs are good estimates in reflecting the feeling of the respondents.
